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Comment by zeptomu | Hacker News Reader

Nice idea and important quick-movements.

However as a Vim user (mostly motivated by the fact that I can move around pressing single keys which I find more "wrist-ergonomic" - potential fast navigation is a nice plus), I always wonder how heavy emacs users deal with CTRL-acrobatics and movement - do you use c-f/c-b for going forward/backward or the usual cursor keys?

For vi users it makes sense to set $readline (~/.inputrc) to vi-style, so for completion here the vi-style bindings (although probably obvious if you used to Vim).

  l "Move forward"
  h "Move backward"
  k "Move up" (step history backward)
  j "Move down" (step history forward)
  ^ "Jump to beginning of line"
  $ "Jump to end of line"

Deleting works as usual with `d` combinations. Furthermore it is convenient to search the history via `/`.

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Honestly, I press both ctrl keys with my palms: http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/swap_CapsLock_Ctrl.html

I'm hearing people say that "that's impossible" or "it's weird", but I've used this method for ~2 years now. It has become muscle memory.

It is the BEST method.

I put a little pad over the Ctrl Keys to press it easily with muy palm.

Ctrl-heavy programs are much easier to use when you map the Ctrl key back to its original position, leaving the Ctrl-labeled key for whatever Hyper needs you have.

Yes, the Lisp Machine keyboard layout: https://deskthority.net/wiki/Symbolics_layout

That way you can press Control or Alt/Meta (or both at the same time) with the thumb of either hand without a lot of movement. C-f and C-b can be done with either left hand only, or left hand for f/b and right thumb on Control (what used to be Alt, on PC keyboards). Rebinding Caps Lock to Backspace also saves a lot of hand movement. Only a handful of small changes and you get a much better keyboard layout.

Is it just me or it looks crazy that the Space Cadet keyboard has thumbs up and down? https://deskthority.net/wiki/File:Space-cadet_guts.jpg

Looking at the keys below maybe it was for up/down.

> do you use c-f/c-b for going forward/backward or the usual cursor keys?

I do. With emacs, you usually have a finger near the Ctrl key at all times anyway, so hitting f or b is much more convenient than moving my right hand over to the arrow keys.

I love these shortcuts in Vim, but now that I primarily type in Dvorak, I have since reprogrammed my keyboard to have the home, end, and arrow cluster directly beneath my fingers on the home row. Just need to activate a function layer with my thumb in order to access those keys. The keyboard I use is called an Atreus.

You absolutely have to remap the caps-lock key to your control key... it's so vital. It unlocks a whole paradise of hotkeys that are easily accessible.

I meant to include it in my original post but I can't edit it now.

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